Themes of consistency and retention have been clear in the opening months of Dale Tapping’s tenure as Essendon VFL Senior Coach.
Officially taking on the role in October, the Bombers’ former AFL Forwards Coach has looked to build upon the foundations of the squad’s late season form in 2024, where they won six of their final seven games to consolidate their best season record in the competition since 2019.
With a majority of last season’s playing group signed for 2025 and a slew of new recruits bolstering their depth including former Kangaroos key forward Tyler Sellers, Tapping is keen for his side to keep establishing their identity this year.
“I’ve been really impressed with the current group,” Tapping said.
“Last year there was a fair amount of work put together around assembling the identity of the group and one of the aims for us was to build some retention for our VFL squad amongst the whole club.
“We’ve been able to retain the majority of the current VFL squad and pleasingly we’ve been able to add to them with some quality signings as well.
“For every club across the board, pre-seasons are obviously always positive but with what we’ve put in place and built upon from those foundations last year, we’re in pretty reasonable shape.
Still in his early days at the helm, Tapping’s usual focus and skillset in the development space has helped the integration as Senior Coach.
Equipped with over 25 years of coaching experience, taking the reins of a full team is a new challenge for Tapping at this level of play, but he cites his support staff and existing relationships around the club as key factors in making an immediate impact on the group.
“I must admit, it’s been an awesome experience so far,” Tapping said.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in the development pathways and I suppose my reputation as a coach throughout my career has been based around my capability in that area, so that wasn’t lost on me even when I was coaching our forwards group at senior level.
“I’ve obviously still got a part to play in nurturing those younger AFL boys, both during training and on our VFL gamedays, but I’ve found myself really enjoying the totality of the role.
“I knew a few of the boys pretty well because you naturally see them around the club a bit, but now being able to coach your own team, working hand-in-hand with them and the leaders in particular has given me an immense amount of joy, a new lease on life in a way.
“I’ve been really well supported by coaches and staff on that front. Having Assistant Coaches like Travis Cloke, Michael Hurley, Luke Williams, adding in Ricky Dyson, (team manager) Ben Brennan, the strength and conditioning crew, we all play an important part.”
Cohesion is a prominent touchpoint in Tapping’s coaching, both in terms of his desired on-field product and the overall team environment.
As far back as his first formal team address, Tapping spoke to the importance of maintaining elite behaviours around the club and working on the same page with all the support staff and coaches.
Seeking to mirror the AFL squad in their day-to-day approach, the Bombers are hoping that their emphasis on consistency across all programs will allow for even more promising results on-field in 2025.
“It’s really about tying in what we’re doing with the AFL team,” Tapping said.
“We’ve worked really hard on implementing some of the teachings from the senior program pre-Christmas, and there’s a lot we’ll continue to add as we integrate back into training now. I’m pretty confident that’ll translate between both squads.
“Right from the first day of pre-season, (being connected) was something I spoke about with the group. What we’ll see is a strong cohesion between our off-field staff, our coaches and obviously our playing group.
“The early indication is that we’re gaining some really good traction in that area.
“We know where we’re at and there’s still a lot of improvement to make, but we’re confident we can keep taking those next steps and work from what we established in the program last year.”
